BOTTOM LINE:
Lots of Action but Asteroid Nonsense

These are
the words that describe the movie
Armageddon, an action-packed adventure in which a
space-aged version of the "Dirty Dozen" saves the
world from an extinction brought on by an errant
asteroid.

But right from the start, the
film gets the facts
wrong. It is correctly pointed out that an asteroid
wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But the
explosive power is stated as a miserly 10,000 atomic
bombs. This is wrong. That asteroid created a blast
of 100,000,000 atomic bombs! The figure is off by
four zeroes.

Nor could the
producers even get the biblical
facts correct. "Armageddon" is said to be the final
day when good and evil meet. Not true. Check out
Revelation 16 of the Holy Bible. "Armageddon" is the
PLACE where these two forces will fight.

In the movie Armageddon, who
are the evil ones?
They are thousands of rocks led by an asteroid the
size of Texas that threatens to extinguish life on
Earth? And who are the good ones? They are a motley
makeshift group of old-drillers who will risk their
lives in a daring rocket journey to save the world. A
few NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut are
also thrown in to help steer the two shuttle
spacecrafts. So these are the heroes of the movie.
But, except for rig owner and drilling expert Harry
Stamper (played excellently by Bruce Willis), the oil
workers are moonlighting criminals. Mobsters as
saviors? Is this any way to improve the moral fabric
of our country?

You would think that a movie
about the extinction
of life on Earth would be serious. Not so. The best
description of Armageddon is an action-adventure film
sprinkled with comedy. Every effort is made to excite
and entertain. No effort is made to educate or
inform. Scientific accuracy is tossed out the window.
The laws of physics are continually violated in order
to maximize the drama. What happened to the good old
movie classics that tried to teach us something about
life?

It is amazing that the asteroid
is able days in
advance to send warning signals consisting of deadly
meteor showers. The first one strikes a space station
orbiting the Earth. The craft is drilled with holes
before exploding. The next attack is on New York
City. It is pelted with huge meteorites. The Chrysler
Building is decapitated, while the City is
decimated. Several days later, Shanghai falls victim.
And near the end of the movie, Paris is destroyed by
an asteroid fragment. This is one of the few places
where a realistic image of an impact is portrayed.
The explosion produces a cloud of dust that surges
outward. Paris is totaled. Only a huge crater and the
bottom halves of the Arc de Triumph and other
buildings are left. It is curious how well directed
that these strikes are. Of all the places on Earth,
why is it that three of the world's biggest cities
are singled out? New York seems to be on every
movie-producer's hit list. In Deep Impact, it was
overwhelmed by a giant wave. And to think that poor
Mayor Giuliana is trying to make the Big Apple a
safer place to live.

Despite the unrealistic
nature of the movie, it is
entertaining and full of action. The frame time is
usually no longer than 3 seconds as one image after
another flashes on the screen in an effort to
maximize the tension. Such rapid-fire images also
limit a viewer's ability to notice the many
scientific flaws.

A love story between
Grace Stamper, Harry's
daughter played by Liv Tyler, and A. J. Frost, a
young oil rig worker played by Ben Affleck, adds a
romantic element to the movie.

Of course, everyone
knows that these space-age,
spaced out oil drillers will in the end save us from
destruction. There is, however, one
not-necessarily-expected event at the end
of the film, which won't be
revealed here so as not to spoil the outcome for
movie-action fans.

In the film, NASA
officials meet to discuss
proposals to avert the asteroid catastrophe. The
suggestions are laughable: Destroy it with lasers?
Americans have clearly been watching too many Star
Trek episodes. Attach sails to it? This is ludicrous.
What's going to provide the drag? Outer space is
virtually empty. There is no wind out there except
for the "solar wind," which can only blow dust and
particles and certainly cannot change the direction
of a heavy asteriod in a matter of days. Destroy it with nuclear weapons? As
correctly stated in the movie, 150 nukes would hardly
be sufficient. Although such bombs would produce 150
craters, the asteroid would remain intact. So what
plan do they come up with? They propose to drill a
hole about 800 feet deep, insert a hydrogen bomb,
explode it and split the asteroid in two pieces that
will fly past Earth on either side. If 150 nukes
won't do the job, certainly one will not either, even
if it is inserted in the asteroid. Can one hydrogen
bomb create a crack that stretches across the state
of Texas?

To
put this in perspective, consider the following
analogy. An 800-foot hole in a 300-mile-sized
asteroid is like a pin-sized hole no deeper than
a scratch in a ten-foot rock.
Scaling things down to life size, the explosion of a
hydrogen bomb would roughly be like lighting a match.
Can the ignition of such a match split a ten-foot
rock?

And later, Harry
Stamper (Bruce Willis) redefines
solid state physics by drilling through yards and
yards of solid steel rock.

So a science-action
film turns into a science-fiction
thriller.

When it comes to man versus
Nature in life-threatening battles, can man always win? When a
tornado touches down, can we stop it? When a tsunami
or giant wave, speeds across the ocean, can we
diminish it? When a volcano is about to erupt, can we
extinguish its hot temper? When a hurricane heads
towards a populated coastal region, can we divert it?
When lightning strikes, can we reflect its flash? The
answers to these questions are no. But we can take
measures. In most instances, our only recourse is
evacuation. In these battles of man versus Nature,
Nature is supreme.

The above disasters involve
tremendous energies,
those approaching the equivalent power of dozens of
atomic bombs. But when it comes to a sizeable
asteroid descending from the heavens, the explosive
power dwarfs all earthly sources. If the object is
detected too late, all we can do is pray. In
Hollywood, however, nothing is impossible. Action
heroes are always there to "save the day."

Bruce
Willis is the only serious character among
the subpoenaed crew. Our world is about to be blown
up, yet these oil-drillers are goofing around and
cracking jokes. Just before they enter the shuttle,
one by one they begin singing the song "I'm leaving
on a jet plane. Don't know when I'll be back again."
But don't be mistaken. There are a lot of good
one-liners in the movie. When, on the asteroid, things
turn from bad to worse, one crewmember blurts out,
"Oh God, it sucks up here!" And Rockhound, who is a
nutty genius of a geologist, has to be tied up after
he refuses to stop shooting laser guns. Another hero
crawls on top of the nuclear bomb and rides it like a
huge motorcycle. When asked to stop, he replies,
"Just wanted to feel the power between my legs."
Armageddon is quite funny in a number of places. But
do not get the impression that the movie is a spoof.
Between the humorous moments, it's action, action,
action!

NASA was duped into
helping the producers of
Armageddon. The organization provided some equipment,
facilities and advice. Yet, in the movie, NASA
officials are portrayed as idiots. The oilrig owner
Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) is much more
knowledgeable about planetary science and rocket
technology than any of the organization's employees.
During the space mission, there is pandemonium in
NASA's headquarters as workers frantically push
buttons and watch display panels fail. Before
assisting another movie project, NASA will probably
request to read the full movie script in advance.

NASA was
not the only government organization
humiliated in the film. The members of the Defense
Department are also portrayed as dimwits. And, of
course, it is the President of the United States who
must make the decision when to detonate "the nuclear
device." After all, only he is permitted to "give the
command" and "push the button." He, of course, does
so at the wrong moment, creating a "time bomb" that
threatens to sabotage the mission.

Supposedly writer
Jonathan Hensleigh and director
Michael Bay asked Ivan Bekey, an ex-NASA
administrator and governmental space advisor, whether
the story obeyed the laws of physics. Either Bekey's
calculator was on the blink or Hensleigh and Bay had
cotton in their ears because the movie creates one
impossible situation after another. Mother Nature
would have a heart attack if she saw this movie,
and Isaac Newton is probably tossing and
turning in his grave right now.

Armageddon used the
same silly idea as in NBC's TV
movie Asteroid to explain how the object is knocked
out of orbit toward the Earth. The answer is a
collision with a comet. There is virtually zero
probability that an object randomly struck by another
will head directly at our planet.

The
Armageddon asteroid is the size of Texas,
rending it one of the three biggest in our solar
system. In fact, it must be Pallas or Vesta. Ceres,
the largest asteroid, is about twice the size of
Texas. These objects orbit in the asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter. If any of these were to
head toward Earth, astronomers would know years in
advance, not in 18 days as in the movie. An excuse
for this is made in Armageddon through a dialog that
tells us that only 3% of the sky is under
observation. This may be true, but if something
happens to one of the larger asteroids, planetary
astronomers will know about it right away.

The producers of
Armageddon seem unaware of the
truly incredible energy that would be released if a
Texas-sized asteroid struck Earth. The destruction
would be mind boggling -- 100,000 times more powerful
than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and
90% of animal life at the end of the Cretaceous
Period. [For a vivid account
of this impact see
The Bible According to Einstein's
chapter entitled
"Nature's Holocaust."]
It would create a crater larger than the size
of the continental United States and leave a
geological structure about 25 times taller than Mount
Everest! Probably, all life except microbes and
deep-ocean dwelling forms would die. [In the movie, it is
incorrectly stated that all bacteria would be
killed.] Even on the opposite side of Earth, the
ground would shake. The explosive power would be
equivalent to ten trillion atomic bombs! Every plant
on Earth would either burn up in fire or die from
lack of Sun due to a black cloud that would engulf
our planet for years and years.

Could
NASA and scientists prevent such a disaster?
While it is possible to deflect a smaller asteroid
through a space mission if detected years in advance,
there is nothing that we could do to stop the giant
Armageddon asteroid. For more on asteroid and comet
impacts see Jupiter Scientific's report on this
subject, which is available
here.

Solar
system scientists classify asteroids with
letters such as S, C, M and E. The makers of
Armageddon have discovered a truly remarkable object
that will revolutionize planetary science. From a
distance, it appears to be almost comet-like and
engulfed in a blue-green cloud. While most asteroids
have a topography not so different from the Moon's,
the Armageddon asteroid has a treacherous terrain of
jagged knife-like rocks, steep crevices and pointed
mountain peaks. Its surface is as intricate as a
crystal chandelier. It is almost as though its
stalagmites threaten to stab Earth's heart. But, of
course, in reality the danger to Earth is created by
the asteroid's tremendous kinetic energy, which gets
translated into heat, pressure and pounding power
upon impact. The Armageddon asteroid is also the
first to have a significant atmosphere and rock
storms. Yes, the efforts of our heroes are impeded
when dozens of rocks start raining down upon them.
Obviously, NASA should have equipped our heroes with
steel umbrellas. The air must contain oxygen to feed
the sparks of fires that are blown by a
sometimes howling wind.
There must also be a "fifth force" that holds
Stamper's crew to the asteroid's surface. It can't be
gravity. The force of gravity on the Armageddon
asteroid is about 20 times weaker than that on Earth.
A 180-pound human would weigh only 9 pounds.

With
Americans learning so little science in high
school and college, there is the danger that they
will think that certain aspects of Armageddon are
accurate. In terms of asteroids, Armageddon is
nonsense.

Because
of the intensity of the action, Armageddon
is more likely to appeal to a younger audience. The
older generation should stick to Deep Impact, which
is easier on the heart, more realistic and deals with
the human drama of an Earth-threatening catastrophe.

Apparently, Armageddon
is a movie that you're not
supposed to take seriously. So sit on the edge of
your seat and hold your breath. It's like riding a
roller coaster for more than two hours. The action
never stops.

The movie
Deep Impact, in which Earth is
threatened by a comet, portrays a much more realistic
scenario than Armageddon. There are few scientific
errors in Deep Impact, and those minor flaws present
are probably not noticed by the audience. An example
occurs after the astronauts have landed on the dark
side of the comet. When "morning comes" and the Sun
shines, suddenly jets of gas gush upward like
geysers. It is highly unlikely that the temperature
would rise so rapidly so as to produce such gas
outflows.

Is the
comet's surface reasonably portrayed in
Deep Impact? It is difficult to say. Even in the
modern age of discovery, scientists know little about
the detailed nature of comets. One of NASA's new
millennium projects is to launch a probe to explore a
comet. In a decade or two, we may see a comet up
close for the first time.

In
Deep Impact, an approximately two-mile wide
fragment of the comet lands in the Atlantic Ocean
producing a giant wave that submerges New York City
and sweeps over the Eastern coastal plain. The
creators of the movie did a superb job in animating
this tsunami. Researchers at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory have
simulated the effects of ocean-slamming asteroids.
The height of the wave in Deep Impact is
approximately correct; if anything, it might even be
a little taller. Such a wave would sweep all the way
to the base of the Appalachian Mountains.

If New
York falls victim to an extraterrestrial
impact in the future, it will probably be as
portrayed in Deep Impact. It is much more likely for
a comet or asteroid to land in the Atlantic Ocean
than for it to strike the City directly as happens in
Armageddon.

Both
movies missed the opportunity to startle the
audience with enormous sonic booms. The fragments
that strike Earth are travelling about 100 times
faster than the speed of sound. Deep Impact did do a
wonderful job of showing the atmospheric pressure
wave, which expanded outward from the collision site.

In Deep
Impact, the comet is blown up by several
nuclear devices at the very last moment. It is
understandable that Hollywood wants to create as
dramatic a movie as possible. But such a procedure
would not save the world. It is impossible to
pulverize a comet as portrayed in the movie. The
nuclear devices would break it up into fragments that
would act like a multiple warhead. The devastation
might even be worse, as the destruction would be
spread over a larger area of Earth. The atmosphere
would suffer more damage.

These
Hollywood dramas create the false impression
that science and technology can save the world under
any circumstance. This is simply not the case. When
the hand of Nature comes pounding down on Earth, we
shall be like tiny ants in our efforts to stop it.

This report was prepared by the staff of Jupiter Scientific,
an organization devoted to the promotion of
science through books, the internet
and other means of communication.

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